B&R showcases smart solutions for pharma

B&R Automation participated at the recently concluded CPhI India organized by UBM at the India Expo Centre. B&R has been a strong player in the pharmaceutical segment. Several exhibitors of packaging, filling and sealing and other equipment at the event were using B&R hardware control systems and servo systems. At its own stand, the company displayed products focused on two segments – the first was equipment manufacturing OEMs, and the other was directed at packaging plants that need to get on to the Internet of Things, or Industry 4.0.

“We have some smart solutions for the pharma industry. Any new machine in this industry needs to be programmed from scratch. The mapp technology displayed here is going to reduce the complexity of programming drastically. We have a function box and components which manufacturers can just drag and drop and the programming time is actually reduced by 67%. So, with this product, our customers can actually reduce time to market for new equipment,” says Ninad Deshpande, head – Marketing at B&R Industrial Solutions.

B&R’s mapp technology also provides quick and easy techniques to implement and customize audit trials. The system manufacturers and end users have access to maximum security without the need to implement organizational measures. The ‘mapp Report’ helps generate PDF reports based on any machine data with a possibility of customization, layout and design. The mapp Database allows users to archive the data directly from the field level to a database, regardless of whether the database is located on site or in the cloud.

“Apart from that with Internet of Things (IoT) catching up, we offer remote access to the machines from any part of the world with SiteManager – Secure Remote Maintenance. With SiteManager, OEMs have the ease to supply machines anywhere across the world and have access to them from their workplace. This allows the OEM supplier to get complete access of the machine and identify any glitch that might arise in the machine,” Deshpande explains.

The company displayed ACOPOS P3, a device that helps to reduce cabinet space and conserve energy. It displayed its Hypervisor that allows Windows or Linux to run alongside B&R’s real time operating system which facilitates the combination of a controller and HMI PC in one device.

“The industry is moving really fast towards smart manufacturing. We are trying to understand the needs of the customers and are coming up with new automation technologies to provide better solutions that help the customer increase productivity. Automation and robotics are playing an extremely vital role in the growth of pharmaceutical packaging in my view. A few years back there was a lot of manual intervention required in any process. Slowly people graduated to semi-automatic machines. But now, with new laws coming in, you need to have everything inspected at every stage of the production process,” Deshpande concludes.

Correspondent. Harish has done Btech in Mechanical Engineering. First worked for a startup that conducted student competitions for designing and fabricating go-karts and eBikes in Hyderabad. Then worked for Food Marketing and Technology magazine. Joined Indian Printer and Publisher and Packaging South Asia in June 2017.